Swamp Thing - VG No. 0031

Swamp Thing has been in the works since I built my second guitar and has a very cool story! When I was inlaying the dragonfly on "Silver Willow" (VG 0002) I imagined inlaying a frog at the other end of the fingerboard with a really long tongue catching the dragonfly and Swamp Thing has the thoughts from many years ago into the actual fingerboard. A few years ago, when I ordered the body wood (Black Limba) for the "Dogwood" guitar (VG 0009), I was blown away when I opened the box and discovered the "eye" that was in the wood and it really looked like an alligator! I saved this pioece for all of these years as I started creating this guitar in my mind. During my journeys, I discovered a woodworking technique called "Intarsia" and decided that I wanted to do this to a guitar top but faced many challenges including the whole part of winding up with a "carved top" at the end of the day. I can go on and on to explain as to how I figured this all out on my own, but I would rather put it into this following concept: all of the pieces of wood that make up the top of the guitar started out at 1/2" thick (from the gator's head to the pupil on the eye of the bird!) Cutting tiny pieces of wood at that thickness is pretty insane in itself, but to make the whole puzzle together was a challenge within itself. The next part of the process was to carve the top of the guitar like most guitars that have carved-tops, but leave certain elements thick in the beginning, but then gradually have them mix in with the theme. So at the end, we have a 3-dimensional inlay really. The tops of the cattails protrude from the guitar, but are not invasive on your arm when you play the guitar (although it looks that way) The guitar is ergonomically pleasing, but really, the whole theme is painted and shaped by mother nature - no dyes were used. And yes, those a real gator's teeth!